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Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan

Looks like American commandos have killed wanted terrorist Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. This is one of the guys whose presence in Islamic Courts Union-controlled was cited as a reason for U.S. support for the December 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia that plunged the country into chaos leading to the deaths of huge numbers of people. That didn’t work in terms of dislodging our key suspects, but now we’re managing to kill terrorists anyway.

The risk in Somalia, however, is that as a consequence of the invasion and the ensuing insurgency, the Somali Islamist movement is now a lot more radical and al-Qaedaish. One doesn’t want this country to turn into a new recruiting grounds for international jihad at just the moment that al-Qaeda’s global appeal is on the wane.